


Then Again

by cerise



Series: Surrogates [1]
Category: Everwood
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-27
Updated: 2004-09-27
Packaged: 2017-10-17 17:19:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/179180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerise/pseuds/cerise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a continuation of my twisted!Bright/Laynie series, "Surrogates."  After a summer of commiserating, Bright and Laynie deal with the fallout of... things going back to normal. 2000 words exactly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then Again

The first time Ephram comes by to watch him play basketball since getting back from New York, Bright realizes he's got nothing left to say to him. The intermittent thuds underscore the awkward silence between them, and it leaves a bad taste in Bright's mouth. He feels off-kilter, and it's all he can do to just concentrate on the hoop.

"You're probably sick of hearing about New York," Ephram offers, stilted and hesitant. Bright doesn't look his way, just aims and shoots. "Tell me about your summer. What'd you do while I was gone?"

Bright grins, shoots again, and answers, "Laynie Hart."

+

"So, let me get this straight," Ephram asks, and Bright chokes on his burger. He sucks down half his Coke as Ephram continues: "You actually scored with Laynie _and_ Gemma this summer?"

"Not at the same time," Bright waggles his eyebrows at Ephram, who doesn't notice that he's only half kidding when he adds, "At least, not yet."

"You're lying to me," Ephram tells him after a moment of consideration. "There's no way the universe would align itself so far in your favor twice in just eight weeks' time."

"What are you, like, an astrologer now? Pass me the ketchup."

  
+

  
Two nights later, Laynie's knocking on the door of the Abbott home, and just her stupid luck that Amy answers the door. Her long, blonde hair is fetchingly disheveled, Laynie thinks, and she can't help but stare before asking for Bright.

She appreciates the way Amy quickly invites her in. But when she sees Ephram draped over the couch, eyes on the television, an Amy-shaped dent in the space next to him that she immediately refills, Laynie's almost sorry she came over.

"You look good, Laynie." Amy's head rests on Ephram's chest. "I love what you did to your hair."

  
+

  
"I think I fucking hate your boyfriend," Laynie blurts out, slamming the palms of her hands against her steering wheel.

"I hate when you say crap like that," Bright mutters sullenly, looking out the window.

"He fucks everything up," Laynie cries. She looks at him, eyes wide and blazing. "What do you even see in him? I mean, he's good looking, I guess, but he's such a smug prick. The world revolves around him because he thinks it should. What kind of justice is that?"

"What, you'd rather the world revolve around _you_?"

She smiles at that. "It's a start."

+

"Bright, can I ask you something?" Amy asks, standing his doorway later that night. He licks the spoon clean of ice cream and shrugs, not looking away from _Totally Spies._

She edges in, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Are you seriously hooking up with Laynie?"

"Why?" he asks, neutral.

Amy wrinkles her nose. "I saw you making out in her car."

"Don't you have your hands full enough with your own love life?"

She cocks an eyebrow. "Just curious. Jeez."

When she leaves, Bright makes a mental note to relay the conversation to Laynie the next time he sees her.

  
+

"You know what we should do?" Laynie traces slow, lazy patterns on his collarbone with her finger.

"No, I seriously have no clue," Bright breathes out, pulling her sheets over him.

"We should have a threesome."

"No way. Are you _high_?"

"Why the hell not?" She props her head up on her hand and looks him in the eye. "We're already sexual deviants! I've never done it, and I know you've never done anything I wasn't an eyewitness to, so..."

"Wait. _Deviants?_ This seems pretty normal to me."

"Awww," Laynie coos, all false sympathy. "Is that what you tell yourself?"

  
+

"Sometimes," he tells her as he yanks on his jeans, "I don't even think you like me."

She rolls her eyes. "Can we skip whatever conversation that was supposed to segue into? Because I'm not so good with the whole reassuring-male-egos routine."

His next words come out like a guilty admission. "Sometimes, I don't even know if I like _you_."

"You wound me, Brighton," Laynie sighs, and rolls on her side to get a better view. "You like things _about_ me, though. Pale skin, dark hair, sarcastic wit in spades... Right?"

And she chuckles at his silence.

+

Laynie's always thought Susie Clarke was only a couple of notches above earthworms in the brains department, so she's a little disappointed that she's who Bright picks to invite over. Susie giggles far too much, but as the evening progresses, she begins to unwind.

Laynie and Bright banter back and forth to put her at ease, but the drunker he gets, the worse he gets at it, and so the girls shriek with laughter at him, grasping hands so tightly, Laynie's knuckles start to hurt.

Susie's expression shifts only slightly when Laynie presses both palms against her face and kisses her.

  
+

  
Bright's tired and sore when Laynie finally drives him home. And he's pretty sure he's strained a neck muscle or two. Still, when Laynie pulls into the dark Abbott driveway, he lets her kiss him, and doesn't object when she slides a hand between his thighs.

"I don't think I can go another round," he groans against the crook of her neck, but she rubs through his jeans, eyes glittering purposefully, until he's halfway to hard again.

She bites at the corners of his mouth. "That was fucking hot."

"Mmm," he agrees.

"Next time, we'll do it with another boy."

  
+

  
"So, Laynie Hart, huh," Ephram muses a few days after that.

"'S no big deal," Bright shrugs.

"So is she, like, your girlfriend now?"

"Noooo," he answers quickly, then pauses. "I mean, I don't know. I think we're just... seeing where it leads us."

"So you're basically telling me you're fuck buddies." He smirks at Bright, and Bright fights back the sudden urge to throw the basketball at Ephram's head.

"Yeah, maybe. Does that bother you?"

Ephram holds his hands up, like a defensive maneuver. "Hey, man. It's a good time. I get it."

Bright almost laughs at that.

Almost.

  
+

  
"Nate, this is Bright," Laynie tells him, leading him into her half-lit living room by the hand. "Bright, Nate. We met at an ECC party a couple of weeks ago."

The other boy eyes Bright appreciatively and nods in greeting. His face tickles a memory in Bright's mind, but he can't really place him.

"Nate's here to help, Bright," Laynie tells him. She pats the space next to her, indicating that he should sit there, and he does. As far away from Nate as he can manage.

"Help with?..."

"Your sexual liberation," she replies blithely. "And my voyeuristic streak."

  
+

  
The first time another guy sucks Bright off, he's kissing Laynie so deeply that his mouth starts to hurt, feeling unnaturally stretched. He starts to think there must be something wrong with that, but somehow that thought goes straight to his cock instead. He tries to pry himself away to give some kind of notice that he's going to come, but she just follows the direction of his head with hers, until he's groaning into her mouth, jerking roughly, eyes wide open.

She finally pulls herself away, and he's gasping for air.

"Your turn now," she purrs in his ear.

  
+

  
Nate plops down on the other side of Bright and leans in for a kiss, but Bright jerks back and looks at Laynie, questioning.

"What're you afraid of?" she asks, voice husky.

"Nothing, it's just. The kissing. I -You know. It's really -"

"Really _what_ , Bright?" she goads him, lips stretching into a slow, innocent smile. "Do I need to point out the obvious here?"

"You didn't seem like such a prude five minutes ago," Nate tells him flatly, unimpressed.

Bright clamps down any trepidation, shuts his eyes, and lets Nate kiss him and rub his erection against Bright's thigh.

  
+

"So, like, you and Bright, huh?" Amy asks Laynie haltingly in the school cafeteria. Laynie looks at her like she's speaking another language for a moment, then it dawns on her what she's referring to.

"Oh! Yeah, I guess," she answers nonchalantly, tray in hand. Amy grabs a chocolate milk and grins.

"That's so weird. I never would've pictured the two of you."

Laynie's mouth goes dry. "Um. I guess it just sort of happened. That's OK, right?"

"Of course," Amy's head bobs in approval. "What are you, kidding? I'm just thrilled he's hooked up with somebody normal and nice."

+

Laynie answers her cell phone sounding almost irritated. "Yeah?"

"Hey. It's me. You busy tonight?" Bright asks.

"Sure am. Sorry," Laynie says, sounding nothing like regretful.

"Wait. Are you serious? What could you possibly be doing tonight that wouldn't let you come out and see me?"

"Susie Clarke," she answers glibly, and hangs up.

Minutes pass before the shock fully wears off. Then he considers calling Ephram. Maybe they can rent a movie, and Ephram can fall asleep on his arm again, like -

Or maybe, Bright thinks, if he's _really_ lucky, he can watch Ephram and Amy make out.

Right.

+

"Hey," Laynie says breathlessly into her phone two nights later. "You wanna hang out tonight? I've got two tickets to The Thrills."

"Well, gee, Laynie, that sounds swell," Bright says, affecting all the drama he can muster. "Unfortunately, I've made other plans."

"You're so not funny."

"I'm so not kidding," he says.

Layne sighs, long suffering and patient. "Is this for getting back at me for hooking up with Susie?"

"Of course not," Bright says agreeably. "It's just that I don't want you to be there when I let Nate fuck me."

And this time, _he_ hangs up on _her_.

  
+

  
"Jesus Christ, Bright, that is one huge hickey," Ephram crows from the fence. Bright slam dunks the basketball furiously. It takes all the restraint he can conjure up to keep himself from glaring.

"It was a hell of a night," he mutters. Dribbles some more.

"You and Laynie must be getting pretty serious."

"It wasn't Laynie." But he hadn't meant to say that.

Ephram's eyebrows climb upward. "Really? You two broke up?"

"Dude, do I ask you for details about Amy?"

Ephram considers this, cocks his head at Bright. "No."

"Okay, then." But he misses the next basket he shoots.

  
+

Bright doesn't even bother saying hello the next time he calls. Just snaps, "You've been avoiding me."

"Is that your fucked up way of telling me you missed me?"

"No," he says, then adds, "Maybe."

"Such a sweet talker," Laynie says dryly on the other end. "What's the matter? Can't get the Piano Man to keep you company?"

"This is not about Ephram."

"Look, if you say it's about you and me, I'm going to have to vomit. Because there is no _you and me_."

"Sure there is," he says. Then - "It's just that it doesn't look like everybody else's."

  
+

  
Bright crawls off Laynie and slips back into the driver's seat of his truck, tucking himself back in and pulling his shirt back into place. He watches her straighten her own clothing, all business, before asking, "So. Does this kind of thing happen a lot?"

"Well, Bright, when two people love each other very much..."

"You know what I mean. Like. Girls like you. And. You know." He shifts.

Laynie ponders this. "No, Bright, I don't normally go around sleeping with gay men. What does it matter? Nobody's getting hurt. So who cares?"

"I guess. But I'm not -"

" _Whatever._ "

  
+

"You know how many times I've talked to him since he got back?"

She doesn't care, not really, but he sounds so miserable that she rolls over and murmurs, "Mmm?"

"Fucking _twice_. It's like I don't exist anymore. Maybe I never did. Maybe I was, like. A stop gap, or something."

"Love sucks, huh?"

She says things like that all the time. He never responds, or just makes some egregious denial, so she feels like the wind's been chased out of her when he says quietly: "It sucks _ass_."

She pets his arm, almost loving. "Yeah, I know. I know."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [**alexajones22**](http://alexajones22.livejournal.com/) for the read-through and the naming of the original boy character. I'm imagining him as being one of the cute frat guys in S2's "My Brother's Keeper." Susie Clarke was one of Bright's prom dates (the one with long dark curly hair) who has a recurring role.


End file.
